After a long wait my new plinker finally arrived.

I present you the canadian NEA15-22:

I already had some parts waiting and quickly the rifle got some tuning. (TROY hk-style flip-up sights and airsoft folding stock adapter)

The rifle is constructed from real metal receivers and freefloat handguard (same as the .223 big brother NEA-15) although the buffer tube was empty as in .22lr there is nothing reciprocating out of the receivers. Overall the NEA15-22 feels like a real rifle, which is good as it is supposed to be a cheap training method compared to my AR-15.

First of all, the trigger is horrible (probably as it is somewhat milspec) but who doesn’t change the trigger to what they’re used to / can afford?

The action seems very similar to chiappa/ATI .22lr conversion ( Chiappa M4-22 parts )  and the included magazines were also chiappa, more on those later.

The bolt finishing is very crude and there appears to be some copper colored patches, maybe from worn out coating.

The bolt construction is pretty simple. One roll pin to hold the extractor and the small extractor spring. NOTE: the pin is at an angle but the punch hole is not..

The firing pin has a notch for the retaining pin that holds it on place and limits the movement. The firing pin spring pushes the pin tail out from the bolt for the hammer to be able to hit it. Although the spring is way too tight and results in some non firing rounds when trigger is pulled.

The bolt and action guide rails finishing does not seem as bad as the bolt itself, some polishing has occurred in 700 rnds.

The barrel has a kind of barrel extension/shroud and the ramp is connected to it. There is a little gap between the ramp and barrel face, also the shroud is not as long as the barrel is. This leads to that it seems that the lock is not closed, but it is as the bolt is against the barrel, not the shroud.

After some test firing, it seems that the chiappa magazines are pretty unreliable and the follower got stuck multiple times. Mag started working again when the follower was pulled a little down and then released. They also have a lot of leeway when they are inserted in the gun.

I also got some other mags for a quick test.

Tested mags were Colt/Umarex/Walther(?), Black Dog Machine and S&W MP15-22.

• BDM worked fine and had the most snug fit, although they are a pain in the as to fill by hand as you cannot pull the follower down. BDM has a high follower that will lock between bolt and barrel face when magazine is empty, resulting that bolt is held open (but will close when you remove the mag 😛 ) just as with the chiappa magazines.
• S&W was not so snug but worked fine and I ordered the Boonie Parker Better-Mag adapter for further testing. S&W follower is not extended out of the mag and thus the bolt will close with empty mag.
• The Colt magazine did not even fit the magwell..

Let the testing and shooting continue!

 

Continued in: NEA15-22 part II